John C. Fitting (1860-1933) taught for twenty-seven years in the one-room schoolhouses of Jackson Township and Wayne Township, Dauphin County, Pennsylvania. After his retirement, he agreed to be interviewed by the Elizabethville Echo. That interview was published in that paper on March 31, 1932.
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SCHOOL TEACHER, 71, RECALLS 27 YEARS IN THE SCHOOL ROOM
John C. Fitting who recently retired at the age of 71 years from twenty-seven years’ service as a school teacher, was the subject of a recent interview by a representative of this paper at his home on Callowhill Street, town [Elizabethville]
Mr. Fitting provided a pleasing subject as the interviewed and was found deeply engrossed in perusal of newspapers, acquiring the latest developments in current events. When told the mission of his visitor Mr. Fitting laconically expressed the belief that telling of his experiences in the school room would not consume very much time.
In this, we found Mr. Fitting to be wrong; and as anticipated, his twenty-seven years provides a wealth of interesting anecdotes, and reveals a philosophy and keen insight into life, which can only be gathered by those who have been in contact with the younger generation for more than a quarter of a century.
Mr. Fitting is a son of the late Mr. and Mrs. William Fitting and was born August 1, 1860 on what was known as the Peter Forney farm in Mifflin Township a short distance east of Berrysburg. On this property is now located the train and flour mill operated by Marlin G. Henninger.
Mr. Fitting was about fourteen years old when his father bought the Fitting farm homestead and moved the family to Armstrong Valley. Later Mr. Fitting attended the Berrysburg Seminary and Cunningham’s School for teacher training at Berrysburg. He rounded out his preparation for teaching at the Bloomsburg Normal School.
“Some of my public school teachers were G. W. D. Enders and G. W. Enders, Nelson Enders, Carrie Breymyer and Cornelius Wilbert,” said our subject.
He received his first school when elected as teacher of Shoop’s School near the Woland farm in Small Valley where about thirty pupils were on the roll. At the time Mr. Fitting entered that profession Jackson Township had nine schools, compared to the present five. The township was also able to supply its schools entirely from its own residents. With the exception of the last four years, as a Wayne Township teacher, Mr. Fitting spent his entire career as a teacher in Jackson Township school rooms. Fisherville was the only school in which he did not teach.
“There were many discouragements” said Mr. Fitting, and I was often tempted to leave it. But despite these obstacles there was something in the work that I liked and I clung to it.
“When I started, in 1866, teachers received $25 a month. In 1897 this was increased to $35 per month and years later, when a teacher received a permanent certificate, a salary of $100 per month was the minimum. Prior to this, school boards paid that they felt the township could afford.
“I had taught eighteen terms when I bought my father’s farm after his death. I farmed for the next seventeen years and returned to the school room for nineteen years, having my residence in Elizabethville the past ten years.”
It was interesting to learn under what conditions the school teachers worked fifty and sixty years ago. “Most of the schools were frame structures. At one end of the building was a platform from six to eight feet wide and raised about six inches from the floor.
“The teacher’s desk was a little more than a home-made table with a drawer which was located on the platform and surrounded by the recitation benches. They too were home-made and offered not even the comfort of back supports.
“The pupils desks were usually made by some neighbor carpenter and boasted a shelf to store the books. The pupils were provided with benches and the desk behind provided a straight back-rest.”
Mr. Fitting recalled that from two to three pupils were accommodated by benches that had a tendency to tilt and deposit the unwary pupil, who sat at the end, unceremoniously on the floor. More often, the old school master said the tilting of the bench was not accidental.
The old type bench he said, also provided a better opportunity for the use of tacks and bent pins.
“Reading, writing and arithmetic were of course the fundamental studies but I was fortunate enough to have secured some training in music and I passed this along to my pupils. Our singing schools and literary societies were always well attended.”
Mr. Fitting’s schools like all others those days, were equipped with paddle and hickory gad, but he expressed a distaste for their use. From what we could gather he believed there was “more truth than fiction” in the term “it hurts you more than it hurts me” applied at such time when corporal punishment was necessary. “It was my last resort,” said Mr. Fitting, “After other forms of discipline had failed. The dunce cap, a coned newspaper, and high stool, were in vogue for the less fractious pupils in these years.
The huge coal stove in the center of the room provided heat and was a glutton for coal during the cold winter months. Oftimes the wet shoes and stockings of pupils who trudged through the snow to school were placed about it to dry.
Pupils purchased their own books and Brooks’ Mental Arithmetic seems to have been considered authorative in anything arithmetic. This book is fondly recalled by many of our older boys and girls, because of whose studies, its influence has lived to the present day. “Although spelling bees were most popular, mental arithmetic ‘bees’ and contests were not uncommon,” aid the teacher.
Mr. Fitting recalled that during his first eleven years in his vocation, the school term included six months. It weas extended to seven months in 1897 and eight months in 1922.
When queries whether his schools had their quota of pranks and jokesters, Mr. Fitting responded quite readily: “Oh, yes, I always appreciated the practical jokes and those pranks that were not destructive to property.
“I recall one Hallowe’en prank at the Enders School. Naturally the boys were quite busy that night and one of their tricks was to place a Spring Wagon on the school house rood, directly covering the chimney so that when fire was built in the school stove, the smoke was to prove annoying.
“The boys had their joke and were sports enough to remove the wagon.
“At another time, I attempted to ring the school bell to call the pupils in from the play grounds. Although I pulled the rope for several minutes I could not hear the clanging of the bell. I investigated and found that the clapper had been muffled by a burlap bag.”
Bringing an evening of reminiscence to a close Mr. Fitting said, “The last school I taught in was Wise’s in Wayne Township. My last day of school was April 23, 1931.” And then referring to his twenty-seven years in the school room he ended: “I like to recall them and I shall never forget them” — and we thought we could discern just a trace of mistiness in this old school teacher’s eyes.
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The portrait of John C. Fitting is from a public tree on Ancestry.com and was probably taken in the 1870s.
The newspaper article was obtained from Newspapers.com.
Corrections and additional information should be added as comments to this post.